Coin count says breadth, not price
Breadth is the first thing buyers compare, and the spread is wide. BingX lists 602 coins and Binance Australia 490, while bit2c lists 2 and bit.plus 3. A long list tells you a token is probably listed somewhere. It does not tell you what a trade will cost, and it says nothing about how deep the order book is on the one pair you want.
In the middle sit Bit2Me with 244 and Binance.US with 175, alongside Bancor on 69 and Backpack on 46. abarai lists 21 and banxa 19, which is the range most casual buyers read as broad enough for everyday use.
A narrow list can be a deliberate choice rather than a thin one. ActivTrades lists 9, Ajaib from 500, altify from 50 and Anycoin Direct from 400. If you hold a handful of assets, breadth may matter less than the funding route and the fee you pay, so read the abarai review against a shorter list before deciding breadth matters to you.
Funding routes narrow the choice before fees do
Your country's payment rails decide which venues you can use at all. abarai and banxa list the same wide set of funding methods, covering card, bank, SEPA, ACH and mobile wallet payments. Binance.US takes card, bank and ACH. Bit2Me takes SEPA, bank and card.
Several venues work through a much narrower set. ActivTrades and bit.plus take card and bank. Anycoin Direct and bison list SEPA and bank. Ajaib, Binance TH, Binance TR and bit2c list bank only, so a card user in those markets works from a shorter list of options.
A single rail is not a weakness if it suits you, and a long list is not a bargain if one of the options costs you more. Check which rail your own bank supports, then read the funding steps in the Anycoin Direct review. Our where to buy crypto ranking groups venues by the way money gets in.
Spot only, or derivatives as well
Every account trades spot against your balance. Some also let you open leveraged positions, and that changes what a coin count means for you. ActivTrades, Ajaib, AscendEX, Backpack, Binance Australia and BingX all offer derivatives. Anycoin Direct, bison, bit2c, Binance TH, Binance TR and Bit2Me do not.
If you only ever buy and hold, a venue without derivatives is not a downgrade. Nothing is borrowed and no position can be closed out for you. If you want leverage, the shortlist narrows fast, and the crypto futures exchanges ranking is built around that shorter list.
Read the Backpack review alongside it. A venue can serve both spot and derivatives from one login and still charge a different rate for each, so the account you open decides the price.
Fees attach to the account type you open
Fees are the part most comparisons flatten, and flattening them misleads. The charge is set by the account type rather than by the brand, so a spot fee and a derivatives fee are not substitutes for one another. Quote the rate for the account you will actually use and set the rest of the table aside.
Funding is priced separately again. A deposit made by card and a deposit made by bank transfer sit on different lines, so a competitive trading fee can be offset by an expensive way of getting money in. Add the two before deciding which venue is cheaper for you overall.
Because the total depends on your own mix of payment rail and account type, the fee schedule in each review is the place to check, starting with the Ajaib and Anycoin Direct entries if you want two worked examples side by side.
Safety of the money is a separate question
None of the features above speak to custody. Before you deposit, look for a licence register entry that covers your location, then read whether deposits are held apart from the firm's own money. Those two answers decide what happens to your balance if the firm stops trading.
A named regulator and a stated protection scheme in a provider's own terms are worth more than any coin list. Treat a listing that gives you a coin count and leaves you to find the licence wording yourself as unfinished, and keep looking until it answers both questions.
Our review pages set out the account steps and the wording each provider uses, so you can compare like with like before you send a first transfer.
Venues outside the usual account model
Some names in these listings also sit in our decentralised exchanges ranking, where custody and settlement work differently from a standard exchange account. Aerodrome Finance lists 102 and Balancer 21, with Bancor on 69.
Backpack sits at 46 and offers derivatives as well, which makes it a useful case to weigh against both groups. If custody is the criterion you care about most, settle that question before you compare coin counts at all.
How to run the comparison in order
Start with the coin you want to hold, because a venue that does not list it is out whatever else it offers. Then check the funding rail, then whether you need a derivatives account, then the fee for that account, and only afterwards the custody and licence wording.
Run every candidate through those checks in the same order and the differences stop being marketing. A broad list with one funding rail, no derivatives and a clear licence can beat a longer list that forces a costly way of paying. Our where to buy crypto ranking and the individual reviews give you the figures to do that.